Senior/U20 event report 6th July 2026

The first of the outdoor national track championships have been decided and the schools are out, someone just needs to tell the weather that actually it’s summer now!  It has been another busy spell for our athletes, training and competing in ALL the weathers again across the roads, track and hills.  

In all the excitement of Roon the Toon in the last report, there were a few races that I didn’t catch in time, but they are worth the wait – in particular a double of V70 wins in the hills for Roddy Pugh, firstly in the Cort-ma Law race on the 17th and then just a couple of days later at the Law Breaker near Tillicoultry on the 20th – great running Roddy.  Also in action on the 21st of June at the Port Glasgow 10k were Gordon and Jacqui Sandler – Gordon was 37th overall in 45:24 and Jacqui was 104th overall and 19th lady in 54:00 – well done both!

Wednesday the 24th saw the SVHC 5k Road Race at Clydebank take place in extremely challenging hot and humid conditions.  Owen Walpole was 15th in 16:42, and Susan Boyd was 98th in 28:31 – strong running in that heat.

Friday the 26th was the Calderglen Trail Running Festival, where Connell Drummond was 16th overall (4th V50) in the 10k in a time of 49:16, while Lindsay Johnson was 17th lady overall and 1st V40 in the 5k race in a time of 27:14.  Also on the 26th, U20 athlete Jamie Work travelled east to Meadowmill for the Team East Lothian OG where he was 2nd in the 1500m in a very solid 4:08.25.

Sunday the 28th of June dawned bright but extremely breezy for the first of the Scottish track championships of the summer – the 4J Scottish Athletics National Track Relay Championships, held on home turf at the AAA.  Our younger athletes had some fantastic performances throughout the day, but the adults could not let them have all the fun!  For the first time, Scottish Athletics introduced a Masters only 3×800 race for both men and women, and as a club we were really keen to support this.  The women were out first, and Laura Haggarty went out with a mission on leg 1 to hand over to 800m newcomer Kat Kelly with a lead of just over 30s.  Kat did a great job getting the baton round and maintaining the lead, making life easier for anchor leg Jennifer Beattie to finish the race off and take the gold medal for the club.  Our ladies ran a total time of 7:48.31, nearly a minute ahead of their closest rivals – hopefully they can defend it next year and take the time down on a less windy day (our ladies ran the 3 fastest times of the race overall, with Laura the top of the tree).  Having watched the ladies from the sidelines, it was then the turn of the men to get the baton round.  Competition was fierce in this race, with 6 masters teams and a senior team on the track chasing down medals.  Graeme Gemmell took the first leg out with a solid run, giving Owen Walpole every chance to hunt down his rivals (running the fastest Masters leg of the race in the process).  Mark Alexander then had the pressure of heading out in the silver medal spot, knowing that the team currently in bronze position had a very fast runner on the last leg.  In the end up he was hunted down in the closing stages but did a fantastic job holding off the Kilbarchan athlete and securing the bronze medal for the men (7:02.73).  Great running from everyone, and hopefully we can get some more senior and masters teams next year.

Saturday the 4th saw senior captain Jennifer Beattie travel through to Stirling for the Pursuit 5000 – a new event on the calendar which is part of the World Athletics Continental Challenger series, and indeed saw some really high-level racing at the sharp end of the event.  Jennifer was competing in race 13 at the start of the meeting, and finished 5th overall in a new PB of 19:40.03.   Also competing in the senior men’s B invitational 800m race later on in the day was Jordan Phillips who ran a scorching 1:50.23 for 2nd place – great running Jordan!

On Sunday the 5th, a small but perfectly formed squad of athletes headed to Aberdeen for Match 3 of the Scottish National Athletics League – we normally don’t cover U18 athletes but in this case it feels appropriate!  In the 100m hurdles, Isla Raeburn was 3rd senior in a time of 17.90s in windy conditions.  She was also 6th in her 200m heat in 28.23s, and in the field she took maximum points at the top of the table in the shot (10.14m) and also the javelin (31.22m) – great to have pinched you back from the Glasgow Uni squad Isla!  In the women’s 800m we had a strong showing with 3 of the 8 athletes running from Kilmarnock – Laura Haggarty was 3rd overall and 3rd senior in 2:18.85, followed by Eve Starritt who was 5th overall and 1st U20 in 2:22.79 and Madeline Curley who was 6th overall and 2nd U18 in 2:28.29.  In the 400m, Gregor Samson won his heat and posted the 2nd fastest U20 time of the day in a new PB of 53.16s, and for the ladies Eve Starritt was 7th in her heat and 2nd U20 overall (60.96), Laura Haggarty won race 2 in what I believe to be a new PB of 61.41 (3rd senior lady overall) and Madeline Curley was 3rd in the same race in 64.18, gaining more valuable points for the club.  Representing the men for the throws, U18 Rhian Mitchell topped the table in the shot with a 16.31m effort, whilst big brother Logan was 2nd senior with 13.81m.  Rhian also topped the table in the discus (44.97m) with Logan 2nd senior again (37.55m).  Some really excellent results from a talented group of athletes – great to see all the hard work in training paying off!

There have been no changes from a league perspective, with Kilmaurs and Dundonald being the next events on the calendar. Remember though that your best Parkrun will count as well as half marathon and marathon within the timeframe so now could be the time to get that time posted.